Pipevine Swallowtails (Battus philenor)

This is a gouache painting that I recently finished, painted from some photographs that I took while on a summer vacation in the western part of Virginia. These colorful butterflies are found in North and Central America.

Rabbit Bench

It looks like a good place to sit and draw rabbits!

Goldfinch Drawings

Apparently goldfinches are very common in the area where I live but I hadn't seen many until I put a thistle feeder in a tree on my patio. Can't see the birds for the trees! :) I've tried several times over the years to put a feeder in various places around my yard but the flying squirrels seem to find them and then find cozy nesting places in the attic. Finally I think all of the necessary patching of places where they can sneak in are fixed! (I wonder if flying squirrels like thistle. I have to admit that they are cute. At least the trapper I found to remove them from the attic releases them in his woods when he goes home. Apparently a few of ours got loose in his house and his wife wasn't too happy with him. Yikes!)

Here are a few drawings of the goldfinches that visit the feeder. The males are turning bright yellow for mating season. I included a photo I took from the window.



hmm..

Finals Results from Test Spray Last Night

Today I etched the plate that I sprayed last night and then printed it, with this result.
Well, it's not exactly what I hoped for -no nice smooth tones - so I'm back to problem-solving! :(
Next step - consider if the material that I spray on the plates is malfunctioning. Sigh....printmaking...why do I do it?? Probably because there is a lot of satisfaction when things go right!

My friend and teacher George Tussing would say "Whatever you do, you're learning and that's a great thing!"

Aquatinting with Zacryl Hardground

When I do etchings, I also like to put some nice tones on my plates so I aquatint them. But since it's been awhile (not too long!), I have been making some test plates so that I can adjust my airbrush just right to get the tones I want. It hasn't been easy! I'm now on my third try (or maybe fourth - I don't want to count!) I think my airbrush is just being persnickety! It couldn't be me. :)

Here are a few pictures to show a little bit of the aquatint process that I use:

There is my little air compressor (used for decorating cakes but is very handy for spraying plates to get aquatints). I fill the little bottle with Zacryl non-toxic acrylic hardground.

Then I set up my easel and put up my old drawing board and cover it with white paper. After that, I put tape on the back of my plate and attach it to the board. Sorry, no picture for that but I was in a hurry and forgot. It was starting to rain AND the light was fading! You see I have to do this outside.

Then I spray my plate with the aquatint solution. This time I tried for a finer spray and more of it!

After I removed my plate, I could see better how much I sprayed. It was definitely more than last time. We will see tomorow when I etch and print the plate! The etchant will bite around all the little dots I sprayed on the plate and will print as tone. Stay tuned!

(I hope this makes sense)

Plate gets attached to board. Forgot picture!

After spraying plate

Jersey Boys

Last Thursday night, I went to see the musical "Jersey Boys" and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen! Lots of old songs from the 60's by the Four Seasons, an extremely popular band at the time. It was the story about how they became a band and how it all worked out. Everything is great about this show - the acting, the sets, the story ...the music! I think anyone would enjoy it. Here's one of the songs (Walk Like a Man) , if you'd like to hear it: